


Dumbass Academy

by BeaRyan



Series: Writing warm ups [12]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: AU, Gen, Teacher AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 12:51:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18756790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeaRyan/pseuds/BeaRyan
Summary: AU: John Murphy, fired home ec teacher now working as a line cook, interviews for a job at Dumberton Diversionary Academy, aka Dumbass Academy.  The members of Spacekru are teachers at this very alternative school for 100 low level teen and tween criminals.Ch 1: Set up.  Harper and Murphy.  TBH, primarily character study, world building, and checking to see if there's any fandom interest in this.Tentative to be written:Ch 2: Meeting other teachers.Ch 3: First day on the job.subsequent: vignettes.





	Dumbass Academy

The "Dumbass Academy" sign graffitied in front of the building put a smile on Murphy's face, and the smile made him realize how long it had been since he'd smiled. This was probably a waste of time, but it's not like he had anything better to do until four. A couple hours with a bunch of semi-incarcerated delinquents would feel like home. 

The buzzer by the door was promptly answered by a woman who somehow seemed both chipper and grounded in reality. It was a pretty rare combo in his experience. 

"John Murphy here to interview with Harper McIntyre." 

"Come in. My office is to the right of the door." 

The lock ground open loudly. As promised, her door was easy to find. He stepped in, ready to take a seat and get grilled about his work history, but she rounded her desk and led him back out into the hall. "I don't care how well you can answer a bunch of questions you prepped for. We're headed to the lunch room." 

"You want free labor out of the job interview?" Of course she did. No one was going to hire him to teach ever again, but if he could run the cat rodeo of high school lunch as a volunteer they'd give him some bullshit line about earning a place on the team. Fuck. He was already pulling split shifts as a line cook. No way in hell was he giving up his limited free-time for a promise from a stranger.

Harper stopped in her tracks and spun on him. "You're incisive enough to work with these kids, but you seem a little bitter. Attitude can change your circumstances. We want these kids to learn to function in society, and I want to see how they function with you. I think you could survive them. I'm not convinced that you'd be good for them." 

And with that she'd tipped her hand. The one thing he hadn't been able to find out about Dumberton Diversionary Academy was why they were hiring midyear and why they'd be willing to interview him. Now he knew. Some teacher had washed out. They needed someone who could hack it. Maybe he did have a shot at getting a job here. 

The cafeteria roughly resembled a mall food court in hell. Clusters of mismatched tables and chairs filled the room with uneven gaps between them. Students ate lunches they'd brought from home or they went through the line and got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and an apple served on a paper plate. The chef in him cringed, but the teacher in him was glad to see that everyone had something to eat. 

A quick headcount showed about a hundred kids in the room. "They all eat at the same time?" he asked. 

"We share the building with a private religious school and an online charter school. This is the only room approved by the health department as a cafeteria, so all three schools take shifts with the auditeria." 

"Can't say I know that word." 

"One room serves as an auditorium and cafeteria." 

"I thought you did your school plays in the gym."

Harper smiled at him. "You did your research. That's good. Makes me think you want to be here." 

Something about her line felt like a challenge and he fought down the urge to strike out. The truth was he felt at his best, his most competent, when cooking, and doing it in a classroom was a lot less brutal than doing it on a restaurant line. More freedom, too, and freedom was important when you'd grown up without it. He asked, "So are you expecting the home ec teacher to lead a workstudy and up what you're serving for lunch?" 

"Fuck yeah! Hire that bitch!" The yell stopped every voice in the room and, like a bunch of synchronized robots, 100 teens and tweens turned to stare at John Murphy and the boy who'd yelled at him. A paper ball sailed through the air and hit the screamer in the head, and the students again turned to see who'd thrown it. 

A woman with long dark hair was sitting on the edge of the stage with four other adults. She ordered, "Adapt to your circumstances, Riley." 

The young man changed everything about himself from his posture to his facial expression as if dropping into character. He grasped Murphy's hand firmly but not aggressively. "I'm pleased to meet you, sir, and really excited to hear that you're joining our team." 

"Nothing's final yet," Harper said. "This is the interview." 

The boy turned back to the other students and yelled again. "I need a student council meeting at table six. We got another interview." To Murphy he said, "C'mon" and then he walked away towards what Murphy could only assume was table six. 

Murphy glanced at Harper for confirmation and she gave a half shrug. "I wanted you to meet the other teachers and then the students, but this works, too."

"You're gonna let the inmates think they run the asylum?" 

"They're kids who've made mistakes. Our job is to keep them from ever becoming inmates. Listen to them. Teach them life skills. Help them find their own strengths. If they ever need to find the cosign of a wave they're either engineers or they'll call Monty or Raven or Google it."

Murphy had met plenty of earnest people in his life with gooey eyed visions of helping troubled youth. Harper had that same sincerity but none of the goo. 

Fuck. He wanted this job. 

"What do I do after the students finish with me?" 

"Pop by a few classrooms. The teachers have all seen that you're here and are expecting you. You can hang out in my office or the library when you think you've had enough. We'll have a staff meeting at 3 in Bellamy's room."

Murphy's stomach knotted as he approached the table full of kids who might be his students. How he approached this could determine if he got the job or not, and if he did get it he'd have to live with whatever tone he'd set with this bunch of delinquents. He sat down and waited for one of them to kick it off. 

The first question sucker punched him, but at least it was out of the way. "So are you the guy who broke a student's nose at Highland?" 

"I ever catch you doing what he was doing I'll break your nose, too." 

The students exchanged glances and he could see them weighing his answer. At a different school threatening the students would have gotten him shown the door, but these kids knew that life was hard and justice was generally either swift or unfairly meted out. 

Finally a girl broke the silence. "I'd have punched him in the dick, but I guess if you're dick-phobic a nose punch isn't a bad option." Her expression challenged him for a reply and the boobs she was plumping up by slouching against the edge of the table were either a plea for attention or a test. 

"You're underage. I'm not talking about dick anything with you." 

She nodded and let the rejection roll by her. So it had been a test.

"Decent answer. Next question: you really think you can improve lunch?"

**Author's Note:**

> There are limited hours in the day, and not to be all FFN in 2012, but if I'm the only one interested in this then I probably won't bother writing down the rest.


End file.
